Welcome to the 10th Anniversary of the Flying Circus Project (FCP): ‘seeing
with foreign eyes’. For the first time, the FCP will see Asian artists
interacting with artists from Europe and the Arab world. Come to the thinking
person’s arts festival. This year, the fcp opens its doors to audiences,
art students and artists by increasing the public events of this well-known
artist workshop. In the continuing tradition of the FCP, all events are
free.

The focus for the fifth FCP includes the literary arts, philosophy and
visual art. Over 50 participants, mostly artists, thinkers and cultural
workers, will gather in Singapore for two weeks to meet and dialogue.
This sharing of practice will involve performances, talks, conversations,
discussions, exhibitions and screenings.

Imagining Indonesia from Java
The opening conversation between rising star of islamic philosophy Ulil
Abshar-Abdalla and literary doyen, public intellectual Goenawan
Mohamed is not to be missed. Ulil is especially well known for
his provocative interventions into public media, be it radio talk shows
and full-page discussions syndicated to 40 major newspapers of Indonesia.
Ulil, respected for a profound knowledge of Islamic teachings and his
search for a new language to talk to clerics about liberal islam, will
also host two platforms highlighting the discourse of islam. Goenawan
Mohd, founder of Tempo and Utan Kayu is one of the most instrumental figures
of the Indonesian creative scene. An epic figure who has fought ferocious
battles for media freedom, who remains deeply convicted to the power of
words. In a searing conversation touching on pluralism of islam, public
morality and nationalism, they pave the way to openly discuss creativity
in relation to religion, society, culture and every day life in our region.
The ‘Imagining Indonesia from Java’ series is focussed on
examining one specific site from different directions. It acts as a trigger
to consider locality and its complex network of issues. Ayu Utami,
indonesian literary sensation, famous for her books detailing the personal
desires of four women, talks of her work. Her books which have been likened
to the sex in the city tv series have sold like hotcakes. With record
print runs, she hosts a radio show, demonstrating the media's role in
the battle for a new indonesia. Nukila Amal, another
lauded novelist, talks about her new book “Cala Ibi” praised
for its delicious revelry of language to her female protagonist’s
inner journey. In an unsurpassed chapter entitled ‘The Land’s
Spell’, she parallels Indonesia’s landscape, the ethnic conflicts
in the moluccas, with the restless search to understand self in Maya:
“Because tonight its blackness gapes. Unlike the nights before.
My entire room, ceiling wall door window, dissolve into a patch of black,
like the blackness of eyes shut. It is a darkness so bright, gripping
and threatening, as if wanting to swallow me into its depths...”
Come enjoy the dramatised readings of both novelists by Singapore theatre
pioneers Lim Kay Tong, Nora Samosir,
Lok Meng Chue and the bright lights of Singapore stage,
Janice Koh, Noorlinah Mohd and Serene
Chen.

Identity and Pop-culture sensibility
Prominent director Jan Ritsema – “It is not
how one says something, or how one does something, which is important,
but rather the finding of an attitude, a reason for wanting to play this
piece. Theatre happens in that unique moment where thinking and acting
coincide”; the brat pack of european dance and theatre Jerome
Bel, Benoit Lachambre, Fanny and Alexander;
live arts pioneers Lois Keidan and the intriguing la
Ribot; up and coming Barbara Kraus (since 1997
this artist has worked solely on improvisation. There have been numerous
performances in the frame of "Yelling at Your Boots", a cycle
of improvisation), Frederic Seguette and Otobong
Nkanga descend on Singapore. Fresh from legendary Berlin Volksbuhne,
Brussel PARTS, Pompidou Centre Paris, London Tate Modern, Amsterdam Rijks
Academy, Vienna Tanzquartier. Emerging dancer Alexandra Bachzetsis,
as part of her post graduate studies will collaborate with Singapore performers.to
make “Secret Instructions”. This workshop presentation explores
the concept of instruction; how it is understood, transformed; how language
is coded; and how cultural background affects the interpretation by the
individual.

The brilliant Paris-based, French choreographer Jerome Bel premieres
his work in Asia for the first time including his newest work from Paris
Opera Ballet “The Show Must Go On 2”. His “Shirtology”
leaves the role of storyteller to T-shirts. It is proof that ‘less’
can mean ‘more’. It is a game with shirts and sentences, spiced
with a mouthful of French humour. Bel skillfully mixes his inspirations
from semiotics with minimal movements, the result being a strange course
in the language of symbols and signs that may be named ‘metamorphic
dance’. Using language and images, Bel speaks about identity and
its place in culture. How it exists and then disappears – to exist
and disappear again. Bel’s themes are as eternal as the changing
seasons or surging seas. He has earned a reputation as a provocateur.
Routinely challenging traditional notions of dance and theatre, his works
– philosophical explorations of life through movement – have
been controversial and confounding. Audiences throughout Europe have had
violent reactions to his work: People have rushed the stage, angrily walked
out of the theatre, or thrown crumpled programs at his dancers. But Bel’s
work can also be full of charm and wit, he’s able to push audiences
to ponder some heady ideas while making them accessible and entertaining
through a sharply ironic pop-culture sensibility.

SUPERINTENSE 111204-121204
Starting from late morning 11 dec to early morning 12 dec, on a rigorous
schedule in two different venues, the fcp presents an amazing spectrum
of attitudes, perspectives and approaches. Po Po from
Myanmar (Burma) talks about contemporary art in the last fifteen years
of his country. Living in Yangon (Rangoon), he continues to find dignity
and courage through simply surviving and continuing to work. Born in Nigeria,
Otobong Nkanga studied in Paris and Amsterdam. She will perform with giant
needles, “I am interesting in showing its duality, its aspects of
destruction and construction. Humanity is based on this, we are constantly
destroying and building at the same time, (birth and death, destruction
through war and construction after war) the traces are left behind and
the waters wash them away. What remain are fragmented ruins and a failing
memory of what it really was.” Architect, urban planner and activist
Marco Kusumawijaya presents “Imagining Jakarta”
a stimulating remapping of reality through desire and fantasy. Founders
of Fanny & Alexander, Luigi de Angelis (director)and Chiara Lagani (writer) present their theatre which
is based on absolute fiction, on a language inclined to lyrical forcings
and never abandoned to everyday words, transfiguring literature in a theatrical
ultra-world. Fanny & Alexander give theatre a hallucinogenic, literary
and monumental edge, like an extreme game; adding a sort of tenderness
from the funeral imaginary and a constant courtship of childhood as a
myth. Navin Rawanchaikul emerged as a co-organiser of
“Chiang Mai Social Installation” held in temples and cemeteries.
He began using a taxicab as a space to exhibit artworks, the idea being
'to overcome the gap between contemporary art and our daily life'. For
Rawanchaikul, the challenge was therefore to 'put art directly into the
community'. From their fascinating collaborations at the Tate Modern in
London, Lois Keidan and La Ribot present separate work in Singapore. Lois
concentrates on a new education resource about performance called “The
Performance Pack” and La Ribot on her new performance research.
La Ribot has created award winning funny pieces that exist at the intersection
of contemporary dance, live art, performance and video. Experienced live,
her work creates a paradox of exact uncertainty. This paradox enthralls
and draws the viewer into the intensive experience that is La Ribot! Close
to midnight the programme continues with stunningly original movements
theatricalized by French-Canadian dancer and choreographer Benoit LaChambre.
He has managed to create a highly personal and emotional body language.
Lexy Jr is an Indonesian documentary-‘no frills’-maker
who has directed “Mass Grave: Indonesia” which is the first
documentary to cover the 1965-66 Red massacre, “Indonesian Student
Revolt. Don’t Follow Leaders” in 2003 and recently a moving
documentary about the widows of Ambon who have lost their husbands in
the civil war in Aceh.

My Neck is Thinner than My Hair
The arab world has dominated our news headlines for the last five years
but in Singapore, we have hardly encountered artists from this region.
With two major productions from Beirut and the unprecedented invitation
to three individuals from East Jersualem, Palestine; the fcp hopes to
redress this unbalance. Jack Pesekian, curator of the
Sharjah (the Emirates) Biennale, director of El Ma’mal Foundation,
gives an overview of contemporary expression in the Arab World with his
“Diary of Disorientation”. Raeda Saadeh,
a visual artist who performs her specific position as a Palestinian woman
and Jumana Abboud, a painter and video artist, will talk
about their work. Jumana’s work has ached with the exiled Palestinian’s
desire to return to the homeland. Stills from her video “Arabic
Pins and Swiss Caps” about pleasure and pain were splashed all around
Berlin as a poster last year. The final two productions have taken contemporary
art centres by storm throughout Europe, the US and back home in Beirut;
making art stars of the creators. “Biokhraphia” performed
by Lina Saneh is about the positioning of theatre, sexuality,
and censorship. It questions and confronts the role of certain social
and political taboos rooted in Lebanese society, without any pretence
to answer questions put forth. “Biokhraphia” manipulates eternal
and sacred truths, and stands at the edge of the abyss of doubt, ambiguity,
uncertainty. It procreates images of the artist that accumulate infinitely
into layers, superimposing themselves upon themselves, obscuring the thin
line between reality and fiction. As indicated by its title, “Biokhraphia”
is a pun on biography and the Arabic term ‘kharaphia’ signifying
delirium, legends, senility, and shit. Her co-creator Rabih Mroue
will make a special talk about his latest work “Looking for a Missing
Employee”. He is interested in using documents of actuality to understand
how rumours, public accusations, national political conflicts and scandals,
as shaped by print media, act on the public sphere. In this work, actuality
acquires a timeless value; it is stripped of its informative value to
emphasise its cultural and political significance. The Atlas Group,
led by Walid Ra’ad shot to fame at Documenta 11 curated
by Okwui Enwelzor. Since then it has not looked back. Their most recent
work makes its Asian premiere in Singapore. Created in collaboration with
architect Tony Chakar and editor Bilal Khbeiz
it is the culmination of the 10th anniversary fcp: “My Neck Is Thinner
Than My Hair: A history of car bombs in the Lebanese Wars (1975-1991)”.
Between 1975 and 1991, 245 car bombs exploded in Lebanon killing thousands,
injuring tens of thousands and causing unspeakable darnage in the neighbourhoods
of Lebanon’s major cities. With this project, The Atlas Group produces
a history of the events, experience, stories and knowledge that surround
the car bombs. Through research and study, The Atlas Group will present
what was being said, believed, known and made public about each of the
245 car bombs.